Trying to prevent Florida from again holding an early primary in 2016, the RNC Rules Committee voted Tuesday to dramatically stiffen penalties for any state that schedules its primary up before the last Tuesday in February.

The measure exempts the four sanctioned “early states” – Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada – who will not be penalized if they need to move up their contests to maintain their favored status.

Florida scheduled a January primary in 2012, even though they lost half of their 100 delegates for breaking a rule to do so.

Under the measure passed by a voice vote here, they would instead get only nine delegates next time.

Representatives from the early states believe this will deter the Sunshine State from again blowing up the calendar, pushing back the start of the primary season.

“We’ve got to come up with an effective penalty to prevent people from jumping,” added New Hampshire committeeman Steve Duprey.

This language will be debated again on Friday by the convention’s rules committee, which includes representatives from all 50 states (as opposed to the smaller, permanent RNC rules committee). If approved, it will be formally approved on the floor of the Republican convention next week.

Top Romney surrogate John H. Sununu will chair the convention rules committee on Friday. This is good for the early states because the former New Hampshire governor is a strong supporter of the early state carve outs.

The rules committee rejected a push to reward states with closed primaries. A measure that would have given 10 percent more delegates to states that only allow Republicans to cast ballots failed on a 16 to 27 vote, under heavy opposition from Texas and New Hampshire.

Alex and I wrote back in January about how the relative lack of heavy penalties on Florida for shredding the 2012 primary calendar could be a sign to other states that they can jump ahead as well. With these stricter penalties from the RNC, it's less likely that other states will try to move their primaries up in 2016 — though clearly losing delegates didn't stop Florida this time around.